Skip Bayless movie
2016By Ian Casselberry on

Speaking with an athlete who will be a topic of discussion on a sports debate show might not result in the hottest take, and may even undercut an argument that one of the hosts planned to make. We don’t know if that was the case when Fox Sports’ Skip Bayless teased that he was going to talk about Dallas Cowboys receiver Dez Bryant and his decision to skip a MRI exam and team meeting.

But when Bryant heard that he was going to be the subject of debate on FS1’s Skip and Shannon Undisputed, he called Bayless out for going on air with his theories and speculation, rather than asking him directly.

Bryant apparently missed the part of Bayless’ tweet that said Undisputed airs at 9:30 a.m. ET (or 8:30 a.m. in Dallas, which sits in the Central time zone), so he was probably a bit late in letting the commentator know that he might be available for comment. Also, it’s a convenient way for Bryant to try and undercut whatever Bayless might have said on the air by making it appear as if he was willing to talk, but was never contacted. Regardless, the show went on.

However, approximately 90 minutes later, while Undisputed was still on the air — because it’s a two-and-a-half-hour show — Bayless offered Bryant the opportunity to give his side of the story.

That could have lent some exciting real-time juice to update to Undisputed. Hey, you didn’t like what we had to say? Contact us and come on the show. We’re on the air for 90 more minutes! Unfortunately, Bryant either didn’t get Bayless’ tweet in time, or declined the offer. In the meantime, Bayless continued with his theory as to why Bryant skipped the MRI and how it shows a lack of accountability and leadership from the receiver.

To be fair, when Cowboys coach Jason Garrett spoke to reporters about Bryant’s absence, citing the receiver’s emotional nature and fears over learning of a serious injury, it lent credence to Bryant’s theories. And even if Bayless didn’t talk to Bryant directly, he’s presumably still well connected to the Cowboys and could have heard such rumblings from whomever he spoke with about the situation, if he did try to do some digging.

The guess here is that Bryant is not going to take Bayless up on his offer. And if he was even thinking about it, Garrett and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones would surely lean heavily on Bryant to make sure he didn’t make this situation any worse than it already looks, potentially getting into a on-air dispute with Bayless and forced to answer questions he’d prefer to avoid. As of this writing, it does not appear that Bryant has followed @undisputed on Twitter to open up a direct message channel.

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About Ian Casselberry

Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.

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